Sunday, 19 January 2014

Old Red-eyes Is Back - The Beautiful South

The is no doubting the volume of
water that has fallen on the country over the last few weeks, but if
there is an up-side to this the climate has been unseasonably mild. On
the strength of that, and with a little coaxing from my mentor, it was
decided to run a single Moth Trap last night with a 'posative' result.
OK, only a single Insect but from tiny Acorns mighty Oaks do grow. There
perched on the top of the very first egg tray was our first
'identifiable' Moth a

CHESTNUT

The distinction is made between 'identifiable' as there were c2
Moths flying around the security lights just a few nights ago.

Again the forecaster foretold of more precipitation and arriving at Longham Lake there were signs of it all around me.

The occasional RAINBOW looked beautiful arcing the lake,

but on 'reflection' this looked slightly better.

PIED WAGTAIL

Still the odd stand of FUNGI about.

This is the 'fence line' in the meadows to the north of the lakes.

Prospects of finer weather and the onset of Spring the first
CATKINS
bursting through.

These
images certainly give a false impression of the prevailing weather
conditions as I arrived at the furthest point from shelter. However, the
rain bearing cloud setting in from the south west missed me by inches
as the village of Longham took the full brunt of the downpour.
Pheeeewww! This

BLACK-NECKED GREBE

which has been here a few weeks now has been seen on every

visit so far this year, but today was the closest to land thus far.

Fantastic views through the telescope of those piercing 'red eyes'.

Here comes another soaking but luckily the car was close at hand
'Gimme Shelter' - The Rolling Stones.
After the rain

GREY HERON

the anglers friends
CORMORANT

GREAT CRESTED GREBE

and CHAFFINCH

Once
again not even a tweet from a Reed Bunting which must be a
record-breaker for this very common bird, never having waited 18 days
into any year to record one! However, just when it was thought today
would be another 'blank' for the Year
List, a wander down to Janet's brother's paddocks produced a

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About Me

Born Beeston, Notts 1946, my family moved to Dorset 1959. Joined the Royal Navy age 15 years and 50 days serving 10 years. In frigates firstly then over 5 years in Submarines as a Seaman/Diver, reaching the dizzy heights of Leading Seaman before leaving to join the Merchant Service, working in Ocean Salvage and Harbour Tugs, passenger / cargo ships, trials vessels, etc. Qualified as Mate (Chief Officer) in 1976 and as Master (Captain) in 1978. For my final 20 years of 47 I worked in the Offshore Oil Industry initially on the drilling rig Stena Hunter, then the accommodation barge Borgland Dolphin and finally the Floating Production Platform Buchan Alpha. On the rigs I forged a number of long lasting friendships several of whom shared some of my extensive travels. Setting foot on Caymen, Bermuda, Bahamas and The Azores in March 2013 brought my countries total to 147. The best, undoubtedly, was Antarctica, followed by Australia, Mongolia, Belize, Zimbabwe, China and Madagascar, in no particular order. As for my greatest achievement in life, my 2 beautiful daughters bear witness to that. Love to all our readers, your in my thoughts. Bagsy